Robot K456

“Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe created one of the first art robots. Robot K456 with 20-Channel Radio Control and 10-Channel Data Recorder, 1965, was an
anthropomorphic automaton whose aluminium skeleton was fancifully decorated with a pair of sponge-rubber falsies, suggesting a gendered humanity.”[1]

“The robot was purpose-built for street actions, in which it was supposed to mingle – more or less inconspicuously – with bypassers, as Paik recounts: ‘I imagined it would meet people on the street and give them a split-second surprise. Like a sudden shower.'”[2]

“In 1971, on the occasion of Paik’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Robot K456, which by then had entered the museum’s collection, enacted a memorable work of performance art.Strolling down Madison Avenue before an eager audience, the robot was broadsided by a taxi-cab, a staged event Paik referred to as The First Accident of the 21st Century.”[1]

Robot K456

k456

[img src:http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/robot-k-456/ ]

[1] Edward A. Shanken, Art and Eelectronic Media, p.38

[2] http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/robot-k-456/